Walking Wonders: The Secret Ingredient to Employee Wellness

For many employees, hours at a desk can quietly add up to backaches, stiff necks, and low energy. Studies by Oxford Academic indicate that prolonged sitting is associated with higher rates of pain and discomfort, increasing lower back pain by 23–47% and increasing the likelihood of neck and shoulder pain by 73%. This can ultimately make it harder to stay focused and motivated. But here’s the good news: even a simple walk can work wonders for your body and mind.

Approximately one hour of exercise can offset the effects of prolonged sitting. A straightforward and underrated method of boosting employee well-being through exercise is walking. That’s because walking is often accessible to anyone, thus helping to improve physical health, mental clarity, and overall workplace morale.

The Science Behind Walking and Wellness

Walking is scientifically proven to offer various health upsides, including physical, mental, and emotional benefits.

Physical Benefits: Walking Your Way to a Healthier Body

• Reducing health risks: Walking strengthens your heart muscles, improves circulation, reduces blood pressure, and lowers cholesterol. This helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 diabetes, and other infectious diseases.
• Better posture: By correctly engaging your abdominals to support your back, looking straight ahead to prevent neck strain, and avoiding overstriding or twisting, you can improve your posture.
• Increased energy: Walking boosts your energy by improving circulation and allowing more oxygen to enter your system, as well as enhancing your hormone levels, which in turn contribute to higher energy levels.
• Better sleep: The various benefits of walking, including reduced stress and boosting the production of sleep hormones such as melatonin, can help individuals fall asleep faster and improve sleep quality.

How Walking Boosts Your Mood and Mind

• Reduce stress and anxiety: Like any physical activity, walking helps regulate brain chemicals, such as endorphins and serotonin, which have mood-boosting effects. It can also provide temporary relief from anxiety symptoms, and regular walking can decrease the chances of developing an anxiety disorder.
• Improved focus: Walking outside helps enhance focus, memory, and concentration by increasing blood circulation to the brain, providing it with oxygen, and promoting the growth of new brain cells. A Stanford study reports that walking helps stimulate the mind and encourages creative thinking by 60%.
• Increased happiness: Walking releases endorphins, natural mood boosters that also help reduce symptoms of anxiety and stress, while providing essential nutrients to the circulatory system, heart, and brain, all of which contribute to increased happiness.

Walking as a Workplace Wellness Strategy

Various companies have integrated walking into their culture:

• Apple’s CEO prefers to have meetings “on foot”
• A Google executive takes walks to “jumpstart his thinking process”.
• The founder of Virgin Group walks when it’s time to plan a strategy.

For employers looking to implement a few other tactics into their workload for themselves and employees, they can start by:

• Encourage walking meetings and learn how to structure them for maximum efficiency.
• Create “walking zones” or mapped routes near the office so employees could walk without getting off-track.
• Offer treadmill workstations and standing or walking desks to employees to prevent prolonged periods of sitting.
• Organize team step challenges so employees can walk together to improve their health.
• For remote workers, encourage them to take midday walks to stretch and join virtual step challenges.

Personal Stories of Transformation

Research conducted within a university workplace study tested a team-based walking competition with prize incentives to boost daily steps. The study comprised forty-nine employees across eight departments, including Health Sciences, Education, and IT. The researchers instructed them to wear step trackers for five days and to attempt to reach 10,000 steps daily.

The findings include:

• Step increase: Participants nearly doubled their daily steps, with an average of 4,799 to 5,959 steps to 10,758 by the end of the five-day period, exceeding the 10,000-step goal.
• Behaviour change: Employees reported higher motivation, as they enjoy the friendly competition, which improves their morale and productivity at work.
• Team success: The Health Sciences team won the challenge with a total of 531,342 steps, followed by the Education and Social Work team, which reached 498,045 steps. 

Demonstrating a collaborative approach to wellness not only fosters connections and productivity but also encourages employees to strive for their fitness goals. A simple, incentivized walking challenge can transform workplace habits, proving that small steps can lead to significant wellness wins.

How to Cultivate a Walking Culture

Walking isn’t just a means of physical movement, but also a transformative wellness tool that enhances physical health, sharpens the mind, and fosters stronger workplace connections. The beauty of walking lies in its simplicity and accessibility, which is as simple as taking that first step. Employers who incorporate walking into their wellness culture are helping to foster a more engaged, energized, and collaborative workforce.

So, the next time you feel midday fatigue or mental fog settling in, remember: the solution might be just a walk away. Whether it’s a solo stroll to clear your head or a team step challenge to spark motivation, walking proves that sometimes, the simplest habits lead to the biggest wins.

About The Author 

Carrie Donnell is the Director of VP of Client Engagement at Walkingspree. She is responsible for leading the Client Engagement Team, including Client Success Managers and Client Success Coordinators. Carrie has over 15 years of experience within the health and wellness industry including areas of account management, corporate program design and promotion, onsite events, health coaching and health and wellness education. Carrie received her Master’s Degree in Human Nutrition from Texas State University. She is also a Certified Health Coach and Certified Fitness and Nutrition Coach.